Useful toys

This Christmas, we’ll have a new toy on the market, one that might actually be useful to kids. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative put forth by Nicholas Negroponte and the MIT Media Labs

is an inexpensive laptop computer intended to be distributed to children around the world, especially to those in developing countries, to provide them with access to knowledge.

to quote wikipedia currently. I’ve been watching this for a year now or so and although it’s got some issues, the idea behind it is brilliant. It has been designed from the ground up to be easy to use by kids, $100 dollar, durable (although it’ll start higher), low energy use, open sourced,Internet accessing (in the wilds of Africa), and a platform for creative interested learning. They are putting it up for sales this Christmas and perhaps instead of getting a RC car, a Barbie, or something similar, your kid might want a computer which is good for their homework and their play. (Did I mention it’s supposed to have static copies of selected Wikipedia articles on it, plus an open-source free version of sim-city?) Also when you buy one at $399, your buying one for a kid somewhere else in the world.

Of course if you don’t want that, you could always get a “Pain Gun” for your kid this Christmas… then again, you might need to hold on to that one.

In other news I’m working on several blog entries, such as one on dollars and statistics behind beggars, a new look at sugar, and one on a new look at education. I hope to have at least one ready by the end of the week.